The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII. No. 358,
November 6, 1886., by Various

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Title: The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII. No. 358, November 6, 1886.

Author: Various

Editor: Charles Peters

Release Date: August 3, 2006 [EBook #18980]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER

VOL. VIII.--NO. 358.

NOVEMBER 6, 1886.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

MERLE'S CRUSADE.

BY ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY, Author of "Aunt Diana," "For Lilias," etc.

[Illustration: "I WAS UNDRESSING THE BOY BY THE BEDROOM FIRE."]

CHAPTER V.

MRS. GARNETT'S ROCKERS.

I had plenty of time for such introspective thoughts as these during my
brief railway journey, and before my luggage and I were safely deposited
at 35, Queen's Gate.

Again I rang the bell, and again the footman in plush and powder
answered the door, but this time there was no hesitation in his manner.

"Miss Fenton, I believe," he said, quite civilly. "If you step into the
waiting-room a moment I will find someone to show you the way to the
nursery," and in two or three minutes a tall, respectable young woman
came to me, and asked me, very pleasantly, to follow her upstairs.

On the way she mentioned two or three things; her mistress was out in
the carriage, and Miss Joyce was with her. The nurse had left the
previous night, and Master Reginald had been so fretful that the
housekeeper had been obliged to sleep with him, as Hannah had been no
manner of use--"girls never were," with a toss of her head, which showed
me the rosy-cheeked Hannah was somewhat in disfavour. Mrs. Garnett was
with him now, and had had a "great deal of trouble in lulling him off to
sleep, the pretty dear."

We had reached the children's corridor by this time, and I heard the
full, cosy tones of Mrs. Garnett's voice in "Hush a bye, baby," and the
sound of rockers on the floor. The sound made me indignant that my baby
should be soothed with that wooden tapping. No wonder so many children
suffered from irritability of the